


Storms and Saints.

by Queen_Of_Naps



Category: Sicario (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, Multi, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-09-02 11:49:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16786396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Of_Naps/pseuds/Queen_Of_Naps
Summary: Lilly Bennett has worked with Matt Graver for 3 years. The introduction of Alejandro Gillick and Kate Macer into their lives makes things more complicated. As tensions rise at the border, the two may have to come to terms with things they've tried to hide.





	1. Phoenix

Although the sun hasn’t yet risen over the horizon, the heat was still suffocating. Lilly’s head was aching from the combination of heat and lack of sleep as she stood outside the airport. The past two weeks had been a blur. She’d been back and forth between Arizona and Washington D.C. more times then she could count. It seemed ninety percent of her life took place on planes these days. Her mother worried about her, and her sister constantly called to scold her for worrying her mother.  
The black SUV sent to pick her up finally pulls up. She tosses her luggage inside the trunk before getting in the backseat. She tells the driver the address Matt had texted her.

As the SUV begins driving away from the airport she rests her head against the seat and closes her eyes. She sinks into a light sleep, but it’s not enough. The drive doesn’t give her enough time to feel rested. Instead, by the time they arrive she wakes up feeling more groggy than before.

When she opens her eyes, she’s in front of a dingy little diner at the edge of town. She walks inside, thinking to herself how only Matt fucking Graver would choose a place like this. The counters are sticky with grease and the floors looked like they could crack beneath her feet. A young waitress with a blonde ponytail leads her to Matt’s table.  
He has his glasses on, and is reading a file. He wiggles his toes, drawing his attention sandal clad feet. Lilly sits down and orders a cup of coffee. The waitress walks off, and Lilly notices Matt’s eyes wandering to her behind.

“Disgusting,” she mutters.

“How is my young padawan this morning?” he asks with mischief in his voice, ignoring her first remark.

“Oh fuck off,” she retorts despite the smirk playing on her lips.

Her specialty was hacking and gathering information. Matt didn’t have the patience to watch strings of text go across the screen until a keyword catches in the filter. Matt was a man of action, while she was content with being behind the scenes. Lillian spent countless less hours combing through everything she could access, Matt wouldn't have been able to sit still that long. At times he was the only person she saw for weeks.

“We’ve got our FBI agent,” he informs her. He passes a file to her, “You’ll like this one. Kate Macer, she’s the leader of the hostage unit here in Tucson. She’ll fit pretty well based on her credentials.”

Lilly opens the folder, and looks over the file inside. Kate Macer had pretty impressive resume. She was a couple years older than Lilly, but still younger than expected. There were some personal notes Matt had scribbled on the bottom of the page. Kate wasn’t married and didn’t have children. She wasn’t a liability. Kate wouldn’t be leaving much behind if she didn’t make it out of Juarez alive. Still, Lilly couldn't help but relate. For a moment she even allowed herself to wallow in self pity. At least Kate had made it to marriage. Lilly recently found herself dumped by the only man she ever felt close to. She couldn't hold relationships together no matter how much tape she used.

"She looks good on paper," Lilly comments.

She closes the file and passes it back to Matt. At the same moment, the waitress arrives with her coffee. Matt winks at the waitress before she walks away.

"She's a little standoffish in person, but she looks good if you know what I mean," Matt comments.

"Are you capable of not being a pervert?" Lilly teases him.

"I don't flirt with you," Matt retorts.

"And for that I'm grateful."

Matt chuckles, "Sure you are, Lillian."

She scowls at him. Matt was the only person in the world who still called her Lillian. No matter how many times she corrected him, he refused to stop. They fall silent as Lilly pours cream and sugar into the coffee. The coffee is weak, but she still hums in appreciation after taking her first sip. She knew this was going to be the first of many shitty cups of coffee for the next few days.

“Alejandro is flying in tonight” Matt breaks the silence.

“And?”

“I was thinking you should come with me to pick him up from the airport. You need to be formally introduced,” Matt remarks.

“I know everything about him already. I’m the one who found him for you-”

“Knowing someone on a screen isn’t the same as meeting them,” Matt laughs.

“I want to get some sleep for tomorrow," she insists.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me. Kate doesn’t know about Juarez yet.”

Lilly rolls her eyes. "So, were you running on the hope she won't notice us crossing the border?"

"Nah, I figured it'd be easier to get her on board after she already agreed to join the taskforce."

"You don't think she'll give us a hard time?"

Matt shrugs, "Nah, like I said she's pretty standoffish. She's also got a history of being pretty compliant."

"She also has no history of breaking the rules, like at all."

"We'll get around that obstacle if it presents itself,” Matt says with another wink.

He stands up and tosses some money on the table. He offers her a ride back to the hotel, so Lilly downs her coffee and follows him out the door. Matt talks the whole time they're in the car, but she doesn't listen to most of it. She watches the Arizona morning fly past the passenger window. All she saw were the activities going on in the streets. The drug dealers hiding in the shadows. The soccer mom meeting someone she just didn’t quite seem to fit with while her baby is in the backseat crying. Since she knew what to look for, she saw it everywhere.

"So, are you going to the airport with me?" Matt asked as they pulled up in front of the hotel.

"I need to get set up in my room so I'll be able to communicate with the Mexican police so we can get Guillermo. We'll have a lot to set up before you get to El Paso."

"I thought you've been working on that."

"I have, but still when you get to Juarez I'll need to patched into their systems so I can tell if-"

"You're not going to Juarez?"

"I don't know, Matt. I haven’t been out in the field in six months.”

"You're my right hand, you realize that don't you?"

"I choose not to think about what you do with your right hand, much less associate myself with it," she jokes.  
Matt rolls his eyes, "You know what I mean. You've been here from the start. You should see it through."

"All the way to Juarez."

"Exactly."

"I'll let you know in the morning," she answers.

Matt shrugs, "Okay."

The two of them exit the SUV. She pulls her suitcase out of the backseat, and goes inside to check in. The hotel was nicer than what they usually stay in when they travel, but not so nice it would draw attention.

Once she gets to her room, she unpacks what she knows for sure need for the next couple days to avoid having to dig in her suitcase constantly. She avoids unpacking everything since it's hard to predict how long they'll be here.

She takes her robe and a towel to the bathroom. She starts the large shower, and strips off her clothes. She steps under the hot water, and for a moment she stands there to let the day wash away. Her muscles relaxed. She shampoos her short hair with cheap hotel shampoo. She makes a mental note to buy her own shampoo the next time she has time to go to the store.

Fresh out of the shower, she dries off the best she can. She pulls on her flannel robe, and towel dries her hair. She sits on the bed, and scrolls through her phone. She answers texts from her family wanting to check in. She's surprised to see a text from Peter, her ex. He asked her how long she would be back in Arizona, and if she was going to stop by to get the rest of her things. She had a sneaking suspicion that her mother was the one who told Lilly was back in Arizona. Each breakup Lilly went through made her mother’s nagging about wanting grandchildren even more persistent.

Lilly panics when she thinks about everything she still needs to get done in her personal life. Since breaking up with Peter she's been staying with her sister when she was actually in Phoenix. She hadn't gotten her own place yet. Or even looked at listings for that matter. She sighs and sends Peter a text back saying she didn't know when she'll be able to come by. He answers with a "k" which to Lilly exuded passive aggressiveness.

As she's getting ready to put the phone down another text flashes upon the screen. This time from Matt.

"Are you not at all curious about the weird door?" His text reads.

She stands up and looks around her room. Across from the small kitchen area is a door she hadn't paid any mind to before. She had been so eager to shower and change that she didn’t even inspect her room first. She opens the other door, and Matt is unpacking his suitcase on the other side. She rolls her eyes, knowing this was likely his doing.

"Adjoined rooms? Really?" she pondered.

Matt flashes her a cheeky grin, "It's like we're roomies."

She rolls her eyes, "I hate you."

He chuckles as she turns around to go back to her own room. She closes the door behind her, and tries to ignore the fact that he's right on the other side of the wall as she takes off her robe and pulls on a pair of sweatpants and a black tank top. She pulls out her work laptop, and sits down in the middle of the bed. She sets to work on planning out the exact plan to retrieve the prisoner in Juarez. She maps out the safest and quickest routes, despite knowing Matt wouldn’t listen to her. He had a habit of giving her tasks only to ignore the results. It was one of her pet peeves. She sets it aside when she’s satisfied with her work. As soon as she lays down, she falls asleep.


	2. Juarez

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt springs a bit of bad news on Lilly. The taskforce heads to Juarez.

Lilly had already taken her spot on the plane when Kate Macer boarded. She recognized the woman immediately from the picture Matt had shown her. Kate looked much younger in person, but Lilly assumed it had to do with the stubborn fear showing in Kate’s eyes. She looked like a little girl pretending not to be scared of the dark. Lilly stood up to introduce herself. The two women shake hands.

“I’m Lilly Bennett,” she introduces herself. Kate does the same, before taking the seat beside Lilly’s.

Matt boards, followed by a tall man with strong build. Her wore sunglasses and a wrinkled suit. Lilly’s heart pounds when she realizes this is Alejandro Gillick. The images of his past killings flashed through her head just as they had flashed over her screen when she first attempted to track him down for Matt. She reminded herself that he had always killed the same people that the CIA wanted dead. She’d never seen him in person, and now she finds herself impolitely staring. Matt introduces Alejandro to Lilly, and Alejandro politely shakes her hand.

“Of course, there’s no need to introduce you to Lillian because she’s the one who helped us track you down,” Matt says with a smirk.

Alejandro takes off his sunglasses for the first time, and he looks her in the eyes. He doesn’t say anything. He nods and then sits down across from them.

After take off, Matt and Alejandro try to catch some sleep. Lilly stares out the window. She feels Kate’s tension beside her. Without thinking she nudges her. Kate turns towards Lilly.

“Are you okay?” Lilly asks her in a low whisper.

“Yeah, I’m good. It’s just-” Kate looks over her shoulder at Matt and then at Alejandro before looking again at Lilly. “It’s just all kind of seems weird. I’m not getting a lot of information.”

Lilly felt a little guilty for having all the answers Kate needed, but knowing deep down she couldn’t divulge them. She sighs.

“Just take it as a learning experience,” Lilly advised. “Hell, half the time I don’t know what’s going on,” she lied.

Kate seemed more at ease now. She sits back against her seat, and closes her eyes. Lilly stares down at her own feet until she gets the sensation of someone watching her. She looks up, and her eyes meet Alejandro’s.

“You can’t sleep on a plane?” He asks her.

“Not particularly.”

Matt’s snore punctuates her sentence.

“You’ll learn.”

***

Briefings were usually Lilly’s job, but they were working with a much larger group than usual which meant it was easier for her to just brief the team leaders and then let them brief their teams. Then of course the head of the US Marshall’s would brief the whole room so they were all on the same page. If she had even tried to brief the whole room there would have inevitably been someone who wanted to give her a hard time or would just go behind her back to ask their team leaders what the “real objective” was. Typically it was easier to let the boys order each other around. Government agencies are predominantly male, and the large the team the more testosterone fills it.

Still, in her head she was correcting almost everything the older US Marshall said to the task force filling the room. She interrupted one time to let him him know he was showing her detailed map upside down. Matt let out a chuckle when he caught her whispering the correct pronunciation of Guillermo after the older man has pronounced it Gilermo. The briefing ended, and the US Marshall approached Matt and Lilly with a satisfied smile.

“Did I miss anything Miss Bennett?” He asked her.

“No you pretty much covered everything,” she lied.

“Good to hear! Is there anything else you need?”

“Where should I set up my computer? I’ll need to patch into the-”

“You’re going to Juarez, right?” Matt interrupts.

“Matt, I can’t go to Juarez. I’ve got to stay here.”

“Excuse us,” Matt says to the Marshall. He leads Lilly away from him.

“Lillian, I really need you to come to Juarez.”

“Matt, no.”

“Listen, I need you to help me keep Kate calm through this process. She’s going to be asking a lot of questions now.”

“So, what? You want me to be your babysitter. No, fuck that.”

Lilly begins walking away, but she feels Matt’s hand on her arm. He isn’t forceful, but there is enough pressure on his grip for Lilly to stop in her tracks. She yanks her arm away.

“Matt, this is not my job. I am not her baby-sitter. I am here to set up surveillance to make sure you don’t get ambushed. You can not expect me to risk this whole operation just because you want me on the field again.”

“Fuck, Lillian, you have to come because Guillermo is being released into your direct custody.”

She loses her breath for a moment, “Matt what the fuck have you done? What the fuck?”

“When I filed the paperwork in my name, the Mexican government rejected it. When I put it in your name, they accepted it.”

“So not only do I have to go, but I have to actually go inside and retrieve him?”

Matt nods. There’s the slightest look of shame in his eyes as Lilly shakes her head in disbelief. Matt hands her a bulletproof vest. As she loads up in the SUV with Alejandro and Kate, tears sting her eyes.

It was stupid to cry right now, and she knew that. She just couldn’t push away the feeling of betrayal gnawing at the pit of her stomach. Her phone beeps, and she opens it to see a text.

_I was going to tell you last night, but when I came over you were already asleep._

_Fuck you._

_It was the only way._

She shoves her phone into her pocket. She spends the rest of the ride watching everything out the window. Alejandro does the same out the opposite window. Kate sits between them, looking lost. Lilly knew all of this was overwhelming to Kate.

They finally reach their destination. The SUV parks so that Lilly gets out right in front of the jailhouse door. Alejandro is quickly on one side of her while Steve Forsing is on the other side of her. The three of them walk slowly towards the door. Lilly has to sign a few pages of paperwork while Alejandro confirms the details to the Mexican police in Spanish. It seems the whole thing was going to be easier than what Lilly had planned. Guillermo is brought out in handcuffs. He’s halfway to Alejandro when Steve yells “GUN!” Alejandro pulls out his pistol and fires two quick shots. One to disarm and one to maim. Lilly is in the corner with her gun pointed straight ahead. She stares at the wounded adolescent as he rolls on the floor groaning in pain. The agents hadn’t been his target, he had been shooting at Guillermo and missed. Two officers put him in handcuffs and they await an ambulance to come get him.

Lilly is frozen in fear, and her chest aches. Logically she knew this could happen. It had been so long since she’d been in this situation that her nerves weren’t as strong as they used to be. Now they stood on edge.

“Lillian, put down the gun. It’s okay,” Steve attempted to calm her nerves. She remained frozen. He still holds his gun to his side as if he’s afraid she might take a shot at him.

Alejandro puts his gun away, and approaches her slowly. His large, warm hand covers hers as he guides her to lower the weapon. She goes limp enough for him to take the gun away.

“Take Guillermo to the car, and do not tell anyone what has happened,” Alejandro says to Steve. Steve nods and heads towards the door with his gun shoved in Guillermo’s back.

“You’re okay,” Alejandro says to her. “You’ve been shot before, and haven’t recovered yet?”

Lillian nods, “I’m sorry.”

“Do not apologize for your fear. Control it.”

He gives her gun back, and she puts it back in the holster. The two go outside together, and they get in the SUV as if nothing happened. The drive back to the border was relatively easy until they got to the border. Alejandro looked at all the cars, and then instructed Kate and Lilly to draw their weapons.

Before either of them had a chance to ask questions, he was out the car. And then shots were being fired. Both women stayed in the car. Lilly had to shoot a cartel member who attempted to sneak up on them from behind the car. As quickly as the shooting started, it stopped. They crossed the border, and went back to the base in El Paso.

***

Lilly sits on the curb with a lit cigarette between her lips. The rest of the crew is inside patting each other’s back on a job well done, but Lilly has no interest in pretending everything went well. It’s quiet outside, but her mind is still screaming about this whole operation and Matt. 

‘ _ Mostly Matt,’  _ a new intrusive thought introduces itself. ‘ _ Matt, the smug motherfucker. I hate him.’  _ Even as the thought crosses her mind, she knows it isn’t true. Not at all. 

She feels conflicted about the way things went down. Obviously, Matt was desperate to get access to Guillermo and sending her into the courthouse was definitely the safer option. She understood why she needed to go in, but she still felt betrayed. If he had talked to her about it, then things would’ve been different. She probably would have volunteered, but he didn’t talk to her. Although, Matt had reached out to explain. 

_ Since when does Matt-fucking-Graver feel the need to explain himself?  _

Her thoughts are finally shut out by a pair of feet approaching. She looks up to see Kate, who greets Lilly with a reluctant wave before sitting beside her on the curb. Lilly felt a bit of relief at having a distraction, even if for a moment. 

“Mind if I bum one of those?” Kate asks and indicates to the pack of cigarettes sitting beside Lilly’s feet. 

“Yeah,” she picks the pack up to hand them to Kate. She smiles, “The lighter is in there too.” 

“Thanks.” 

Lilly puts out her cigarette on the concrete. Kate takes a long drag off her own cigarette as if taking her first breath, and Lilly guesses this must be the first time she’s smoked in a while. These jobs will do that to a person. Lilly lost track of the amount of times she quit smoking only to pick it up when things got exceptionally stressful. 

“Shouldn’t you be in there with them?” Kate asks. 

“Nah, interrogations aren’t really my thing.” Lilly sighs, “If I’m being honest, none of this is really my thing anymore. I was more of a strategist, but Matt seems to have other plans.” Her phone buzzes, and she pulls it out of her pocket. Matt’s name flashes across her screen. 

“Duty calls?” Kate asks, trying to hide how eager she is to press Lilly about Matt. 

“More like duty texts,” Lilly stands up as she unlocks her phone to read the message away from Kate’s prying eyes. 

Matt:  _ Guillermo gave us everything. Still wanna resign?  _

She puts her phone back in her pocket without answering his text. Since they got what they needed from Guillermo, her job was technically done. Had things been better between her and Matt at the moment, she would’ve offered to help further; however, right now she just wanted to get back to the hotel to sleep the day off.


End file.
